Justices threw out a provision that required nine states with a history of discrimination to get federal clearance for any updates to their election laws.

The Supreme Court called on Congress to modernize the formula for determining which states must seek outside approval to change their voting laws. But federal legislators have not moved forward on a bill to do so.

The Sensenbrenner bill, which failed to make it out of the House Judiciary Committee last year, would require states that have committed five voting law violations over the last 15 years to obtain federal pre-clearance for any changes to election law. Under that change, four states would still be subject to federal oversight.

"I think many Republicans recognize that the Voting Rights Act was the single most important civil rights legislation ever passed in American history," Dent said.

Last spring, Dent had not formally backed the proposal to update the Voting Rights Act. He told the Morning Call in May that he wanted to make sure the bill would not require states with photo identification laws to receive greater scrutiny from the Department of Justice.

Pennsylvania's voter ID law had been struck down by a state court, but Gov. Tom Corbett was still deciding whether to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Corbett later decided against fighting the court decision.

"It was awful. It was a stolen election," said Dent, who was serving in the state House of Representatives at the time. "I think we can be against discrimination and against fraud."

The NAACP and other groups have opposed photo identification requirements, which they say are discriminatory and can disenfranchise young and minority voters by narrowly defining what constitutes a valid ID.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said during Sunday's segment that the upcoming 50th anniversary of the civil rights marches in Selma, Ala., creates extra urgency to work through any disputes over the bill's provisions.

"At the end of the day, we need a hearing on this bill," Ifill said. "We need to figure out what's missing from our side. We need to figure out what's problematic from the other side. We need to work on that bill. We haven't been able to get a hearing on it."